Welcome to 3 Preachy Prophets, the NC Synod’s 2021 summer Bible reading plan. This study is the result of efforts from a variety of your fellow Lutherans from across North Carolina, both clergy and lay, and is brought to you by the synod’s Engage the Bible Task Group—a Book of Faith ministry. We give thanks for the writers’ contributions to this summer’s experience. Begin each day’s reading by first reading the corresponding chapter from the book of Hosea, Joel, or Amos. Next read the thought-provoking devotional and sit for a while with the questions. Close your reading with the prayer. In the introduction to 3 Preachy Prophets, Dr. Clinton Moyer says that these three Old Testament books are, “…imposing works full of judgment and terror.” Even in the midst of that, however, Moyer encourages us be on the lookout because, “…mercy is far from absent.” The Engage the Bible Task Group is excited to offer this Bible reading plan for you—and the whole synod—to hear the judgment and wrath—even sit with them for a time—but then be prepared to find again God’s ever-present mercy. We pray the Holy Spirit’s richest blessings on your journey this summer with 3 Preachy Prophets. 3 Preachy Prophets: Hosea, Joel, & Amos An Introduction Hosea, Joel, and Amos, the first three of the so-called “Minor Prophets,” are imposing works full of judgment and terror. While these works make abundantly clear the consequences of Israel’s evils, it can be difficult indeed to see God’s mercy amongst their incessant declarations of God’s wrath. But mercy is far from absent. Hosea marries a prostitute to symbolize God’s marriage to Israel, the unfaithful bride. Using the metaphor of divorce—the statement “she is not my wife, and I am not her husband” (2:2) is language drawn directly from legal procedure—God hurls brutal humiliations on Israel. Yet for all the prophet’s vitriol, verses 14-23 recall Israel’s roots in the wilderness, returning to this “courtship” period in search of renewal and reconciliation. Brokenness is not the end: this theme should permeate our reading of the rest of the book. Full of dread images, Joel describes Israel’s impending destruction as an all-consuming swarm of locusts. Yet one of the Bible’s greatest images of restoration and plenty is to be found beginning in 2:18. As the wave of destruction is lifted, a new order emerges: earth, animals, and humans shall experience abundance (2:21-24). Devastation is not the end: God looks beyond suffering to the healing that follows. Amos targets the elites, particularly the vaunted religious leaders of the day. His condemnations are crushing: God spurns song and sacrifice alike, declaring, “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies” (5:21). Yet an alternative emerges: “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (5:24). Condemnation is not the end: it is the flipside of Amos’s advocacy for the abused and downtrodden in society. Rabbi Abraham Heschel beautifully captured this perspective on God’s wrath as expressed in the prophets: “The wrath of God is a lamentation. All prophecy is one great exclamation: God is not indifferent to evil! He is always concerned. He is personally affected by what man does to man. He is a God of pathos. This is one of the meanings of the anger of God: the end of indifference!” To Consider: 1. What does Hosea’s metaphorical use of marriage, divorce, and prostitution say about gender roles and relationships? What about sex workers? 2. What does Amos teach us about the place of wrath in the context of social action? Holy God, even as we are deserving recipients of condemnation, help us to be agents of reconciliation. As we wrestle with your anger, show us your presence with those who suffer; as we are solemnly reminded of our own evil, help us to recognize and realize our potential for good. Amen. Dr. Clinton J. Moyer is a scholar of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He specializes in the literary aspects of the Bible and has particular interest in prophecy as a social phenomenon. His 2009 dissertation focused on the foreign prophet Balaam (Numbers 22–24). Currently, he is working on a book entitled The Unwritten Bible and Other Holy Heresies, which seeks to inform readers about the mechanics of biblical literature, neutralize toxic theologies that have gained a foothold within American Christianity, and spark greater interest in deep, thoughtful, ongoing engagement with our sacred texts. Bad News to Good News Reading 1, Hosea 1 This first chapter of Hosea is a bit rough. Using Luther's imagery, there is a lot of straw in this manger before we get to Jesus. Like other prophets, Hosea begins with the phrase, "The word of the LORD." It is not Hosea's word, but a trustworthy authoritative Word from God Himself. God asks Hosea to do the extraordinary act of marrying a prostitute named Gomer. It is an allegory in the flesh of our unfaithfulness to God, seen in Gomer's self-centered running around town and always running away from Hosea. Picture Hosea's broken heart as the reality of God's hurt over our fickle unfaithfulness, blatant disloyalty and passionate pursuit of other loves. To focus only on Gomer and our unfaithfulness however, would be like mistakenly focusing our attention on the wayward prodigal rather than the patient waiting Father. The tangled mess of the straw is only to reveal the amazing contrast of the ridiculous, relentless love-without-end of the Savior. So, God pulls no punches on how tangled this web of sin is. He makes this most unlikely to succeed union to produce children; a boy named "not my child” and a girl named "no mercy." Really? Kind of like God asking you to name your own kids Judas and Jezebel. We get it. We're that broken. This painful disobedience transcends the bounds of time implicating even the well-meaning disciples who betrayed, denied, and ran away from their Savior. Even Paul, the best of the apostles at the zenith of his faith journey, admits to confirmand Timothy, that the saying is true that Jesus Christ died for sinners, of which he was the foremost. We would drown in this straw of sin if our failings—like Gomer's, the disciples and the apostles, and all before us—were the final and only word that defined us. Like Hosea marrying a prostitute, we have a God who has chosen a tainted bride, the church, who as Paul reminds, while we were yet sinners, our Groom died for us. In the cosmic reality of time, just as everyday Hosea had to forgive Gomer, so our God, while we are yet sinners in a sense, dies for us each day. And in our most clear moments we can see a cross, like Gomer could see the moistened eyes of Hosea and we die to ourselves to see an absolutely amazing Savior who is always there for us. To Consider: 1. How does Luther's comment—if we keep the first commandment, thou shall have no other gods before me, we fulfill all the other commands—make sense in this story and in our lives? Lord, this past year has been one filled with challenging circumstances and situations. We pray that we have learned something about You and ourselves. What really matters and what we really can live without. We confess that we have even considered sacred things that are really straw before You. We repent of even worshiping our worship. Our form over function, our religion over relationship, and our fixation on the gifts rather than the Giver. May we come home to You alone again this day. Amen. Pastor Mike Stone shares: My amazing grace for 40+ years is my wife, Laura. I am blessed with gracious parents, two sons; Matt and husband, Steed, and Josh and his wife, Jordan; and granddaughter, Julianne, and another on the way! My niece is actress Emma Stone. Judgment or Redemption? Reading 2, Hosea 2 When I first began reading this chapter, I could feel my teeth clenching and my stomach churning, as the words of the LORD through Hosea were offering condemnation to Israel, represented as a woman—an unfaithful woman—and not just unfaithful, but a whore! Talk about misogynistic, I thought and felt. Then memories from my Old Testament class in seminary all those long years ago came flooding back. And I recalled that, at the instruction of the God of Israel, Hosea himself took a prostitute as a wife and named his children Loruhamah (not accepted) and Loamni (not my people), his family becoming a living metaphor for the relationship between the LORD and Israel. So…I began to relax my jaw and my stomach, and as I read further, I found that in this chapter, the LORD is not only chastising Israel for their unfaithfulness, but promising to continue to seek them out (verse 14): Therefore, I will speak coaxingly to her, and lead her through the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (Tanakh, the Jewish Bible) And not only seek them out, but be as a husband to them, in spite of their unfaithfulness (verses 19 and 20): And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.